Future looks good for the all new Renault Kadjar

Published:10:30Saturday 09 January 2016

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THE two members of the Renault-Nissan Alliance have one thing in common when it comes to naming some of their vehicles for they both seem to prefer unusual names to numbers or traditional designations unlike most other manufacturers writes Bryan Longworth.

Nissan started it with their big selling Qashqai and now Renault has followed suit with their version of the crossover which has been named the Kadjar and its distinctive styling should also help to make it a showroom success story.

What does Kadjar mean? Renault offer a not very convincing explanation by saying kad is inspired by the word quad which means something driven by four wheels and jar is a reference to the French word jaillir which means to emerge quickly thus creating an agile 4x4 vehicle that is as daft as the name!

Kadjar is built on the same platform as Quashqai in Spain and shares plenty of the parts but looks quite different with plenty of kerb appeal that should ensure it sells well despite the competition from Quashqai and others such as the Mazda CX-5 and VW Tiguan.

The French manufacturer says that Kadjar is effectively three cars in one being a combination of an SUV estate and saloon designed to slot into a city scene or the countryside and if the success of the Quashqai is anything to go by the Kadjar should have a bright future.

It follows the success of the smaller Renault Captur compact crossover that is related to the Nissan Juke and is available in an 18 model range offering three engines one petrol and two diesel, two gearboxes, four trim levels and two or four wheel drive.

Renault Kadjar is priced from £17,995 rising to £26,295 with three models available in four wheel drive and it has a four year warranty and roadside assistance package as standard.

It is expected that 80 per cent of sales will be for the diesel engines and only eight per cent of buyers are expected to choose four wheel drive which is only available with diesel power with a massive majority going for the two wheel drive models.

Kadjar has very distinctive styling leading on from Captur which sold over 178,000 units last year and the designers have shown real French flair in producing an eye catching shape that some will prefer to Quashqai.

It complements Captur and means that Renault is now represented in the two most important sectors of the crossover market with Captur primarily being an urban crossover and Kadjar having the ability to be an all terrain vehicle.

Renault say that despite crossovers replacing MPVs in buying patterns they do not have any plans for producing a seven seater Kadjar despite the flexibility of the platform.

And finally there is good news for Kadjar owners when it comes to saying goodbye to their car for CAP the Yorkshire based residual value experts say that average residual values of the Renault after three years and 60,000 miles will be better than its six major rivals from Europe and South Korea.